Full Employment And Social Justice

This edited collection investigates how full employment programs can sustain the economy and the environment, promote social justice, and reinvigorate local communities. The contributing authors focus on the formation of institutions to eliminate the opportunity gap for marginalized populations, enact environmentally sustainable methods of production and consumption, and rebuild local economies through education, training, and community redevelopment programs. They argue that the formation and implementation of a federally funded, locally operated Job Guarantee program is a vital component to address a variety of complex and interweaving concerns. Through the formation of alternative institutions and encouraging local economies, the Job Guarantee approach has the potential to alter economic, social, and political structures away from an exploitative market-oriented structure toward one that is refocused on humanity and the sustainability of the earth and its peoples, cultures, and communities.

Beveridge defined full employment as a state where there are slightly more vacant jobs than there are available workers, or not more than 3% of the total workforce. This book discusses how this goal might be achieved, beginning with the thesis that because individual employers are not capable of creating full employment, it must be the responsibility of the state. Beveridge claimed that the upward pressure on wages, due to the increased bargaining strength of labour, would be eased by rising productivity, and kept in check by a system of wage arbitration. The cooperation of workers would be secured by the common interest in the ideal of full employment. Alternative measures for achieving full employment included Keynesian-style fiscal regulation, direct control of manpower, and state control of the means of production. The impetus behind Beveridge's thinking was social justice and the creation of an ideal new society after the war. The book was written in the context of an economy which would have to transfer from wartime direction to peace time. It was then updated in 1960, following a decade where the average unemployment rate in Britain was in fact nearly 1.5%.

Beveridge defined full employment as a state where there are slightly more vacant jobs than there are available workers, or not more than 3% of the total workforce. This book discusses how this goal might be achieved, beginning with the thesis that because individual employers are not capable of creating full employment, it must be the responsibility of the state. Beveridge claimed that the upward pressure on wages, due to the increased bargaining strength of labour, would be eased by rising productivity, and kept in check by a system of wage arbitration. The cooperation of workers would be secured by the common interest in the ideal of full employment. Alternative measures for achieving full employment included Keynesian-style fiscal regulation, direct control of manpower, and state control of the means of production. The impetus behind Beveridge's thinking was social justice and the creation of an ideal new society after the war. The book was written in the context of an economy which would have to transfer from wartime direction to peace time. It was then updated in 1960, following a decade where the average unemployment rate in Britain was in fact nearly 1.5%.

There is a powerful and enduring economic tradition which holds that a paramount concern for economists should be the promotion of social justice. This book collects essays by many of the best known contemporary economists, in memory of Fausto Vicarelli, a leading figure in Keynesian economics. The contributors discuss the role of economic theory in tackling poverty and unemployment in both the developed and developing world and in promoting a new international economic order. The outstanding international team of contributors includes Anthony. B. Atkinson, Paul Davidson, Jan Kregel, James Tobin and Hyman P. Mynsky.

In The Economic Illusion Robert Kuttner sets out to refute the conventional view that a more egalitarian distribution of income and services is only achievable at the expense of a prosperous and growing capitalism. By carefully examining issues where economic growth and social justice appear to be in conflict—issues such as social security, protectionism, income taxation, and welfare—he convincingly argues that equality and economic prosperity are not mutually exclusive pursuits. As a means to reconcile equality with efficiency—i.e., prosperity—Kuttner argues for economic polices that would deemphasize private markets, for an increase in trade protection, and for an adapted version of the technical approaches of such countries as Sweden, Germany, Austria, and Japan. Kuttner concludes his arguments with the suggestion that injustice is not necessarily an economic issue and that practical social alternatives are possible.

Basic income is a regularly debated topic in various scholarly disciplines (political philosophy, political theory, welfare economics, labour market economics and social policy) and in circles of policy makers, administrators and activists. Since the late 1970s, unemployment is the primary problem for social-economic policy in all welfare states. In Basic Income, Unemployment and Compensatory Justice it is argued that implementing a substantial basic income is the best policy response to deal with unemployment-induced problems such as job insecurity, social exclusion, poverty and lack of compensatory justice on the labour market and to improve labour market flexibility, boost low wage employment and part-time work. Basic Income, Unemployment and Compensatory Justice, with an introductory chapter by Philippe van Parijs, discusses the attractiveness of a substantial basic income to deal with the problem of unemployment, in combination with an ethical perspective of social justice. Loek Groot is a senior lecturer at the Utrecht School of Economics.

This book tells the story of the International Labour Organization, founded in 1919 in the belief that universal and lasting peace goes hand in hand with social justice. Since then the ILO has contributed to the protection of the vulnerable, the fight against unemployment, the promotion of human rights, the development of democratic institutions and the improvement of the working lives of women and men everywhere. In its history the ILO has sometimes thrived, sometimes suffered setbacks, but always survived to pursue its goals through the political and economic upheavals of the last 90 years.